Since the dawn of the webcam, video chatters have had to contend with a universal problem: awful lighting. Unless you manage to find natural light and get the angle just right, achieving a perfectly lit picture seems an insurmountable challenge.
That's where San Diego company Lume Cube's new waterproof, Bluetooth-enabled lighting kit comes in. The AIR VC, which was unveiled today at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, is a portable LED array specially designed to improve video conferencing and livestreaming.
That might sound a little excessive, but Lume Cube is determined to bring bright lights to unconventional places. It announced a dual-LED 1,500-lumen LED kit built specifically for DJI's Mavic 2 drone last year and was an early pioneer in lights for mobile photography.
"With such a rise in visual communication fueled by remote workers, video conferencing, and home devices, we noticed there were little to no lighting solutions designed specifically to enhance how people look on camera when communicating via their smart devices," Lume Cube cofounder Riley Stricklin said. "We created a solution that is interchangeable between devices to ensure the best overall video experience for both parties."
The AIR VC, which starts at $79 -- about the cost of webcams like Microsoft's LifeCam Studio ($100) and Logitech's C922 -- sports a rotating suction cup mount that Lume says works with almost any product. The 1.6 x 1.6 x 1.1-inch kit adds just two ounces of weight to PC-paired snappers and recharges via USB.
Lume Cube claims the AIR VC's LEDs are best in class for their size, with a 5,700K daylight-balanced color temperature, a maximum brightness of 400 lux, and a 60-degree beam angle. A custom-designed Fresnel lens sharpens shadows and minimizes hotspots, and the Lume Cube's app for Android and iOS lets you tweak things like the mode, strobe speeds, and more.
"[W]ith the recent launch of in-home video communication products like Google Home Hub and Facebook Portal, the need for a versatile lighting solution has become more significant than ever before," Stricklin added. "The Lume Cube AIR VC allows the user to truly look their best while the camera is on, no matter what environment they are in."
Lume Cube's AIR VC will be available starting January 8, and it comes with two diffusers -- a white diffuser and a warming diffuser -- that help match skin tones and soften the light from AIR VC's LEDs.